Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero (64–79 CE): Art, History and Details

Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero (64–79 CE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Although this portrait head was designed to fit into a statue of a body, it did not originally belong with the togate body that held it when purchased by the museum in 1929. In 1973, the two were separated, and the body is now in storage. The head itself was recarved in antiquity, from a likeness of Nero to one of Vespasian, following the damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) of the former. A line at the back of head shows clearly where the long hair of Nero has been shortened, while other Neronian features, such as a receding lower lip, remain.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait Head of Emperor Vespasian, Recut from Head of Nero
• Date: 64–79 CE
• Culture: Italy, Roman
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 40 x 21.6 x 24.9 cm (15 3/4 x 8 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Roman
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1929.998

A detail from the museum

Originally a portrait of Emperor Nero, this head was recarved after his damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory).

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Platt, Verity. “Reassessing Pliny the Elder at 2000.” In Wonder and Wakefulness: The Nature of Pliny the Elder, edited by Verity Platt and Andrew C. Weislogel, pp.15, 21. Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, 2024.
• R. H. "The Portrait of a Roman Statesman." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 16, no. 8 (1929): 139-41.
• "Cleveland Gets Roman Statue" ARTnews. [New York, etc.] (October 19, 1929).

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.